Coronavirus: July 2020 budget to reposition economy to meet global effects – Ofori-Atta

Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, has assured the new 2020 budget which is likely to be presented in Parliament, come July this year, will reposition Ghana’s economy to meet the global effects in the wake of the novel Coronavirus outbreak.

According to him, the decision to present a new budget is to curtail the shortfalls of the initial budget being already out of gear due to the Coronavirus pandemic, adding, there’s a need to reassess government’s expenditure and realign events to meets its revenue targets.

Speaking in an interview on Citi TV’s, The Point of View on April 1, Ofori-Atta said; “It is a time of sacrifice and understanding. Sometimes I wonder if people have divorced themselves from the reality that this could lead to some serious debt. We will be uncomfortable running a system with a lot of inefficiencies so some of those will be accentuated; but ours is to find ways of mitigating that. That comes to choices. A lot of things come to play depending on the severity we are going to experience; but one has to keep the eye on the ball to make sure we do not derail all that we are doing,” he explained.

He further revealed discussions are ongoing among Finance Ministers in Africa to mitigate strategies towards restoring the yields realized in the outcome of the pandemic.

“A number of meetings we have had with the Finance Ministers in Africa are aimed at trying to reposition this whole global architecture to see what is the most fit for purpose architecture. We are pushing for reliefs, we are pushing for postponement, and that will allow us to make fiscal space for us in order not to wipe out of the season.”

Ken Ofori-Atta in a briefing earlier in Parliament, March 30 projected the pandemic if not contained, may move the country’s 2020 budget deficit to over 7 percent.

He added Ghana’s economy will lose GH¢9.5 billion due to the outbreak and this will represent 2.5 percent of Ghana’s revised Gross Domestic Product (GPD).